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Saturday, November 14, 2015

ObamaCare As 5 Year Old

Imagine ObamaCare as a 5 year old. Its parents are two Democrat committees who wrote the 2700 genetic script for its upbringing, still mostly unread by its supporters.

By age 5, the script went, ObamaCare would be a lusty, healthy baby . Its parents and politic supporters would take pride in their creation. Americans would embrace it as a worthy sibling of Medicare and Medicaid.

ObamaCare would be the fair-haired child. It would cut costs, facilitate access to your favorite doctor and health plan, and improve the quality of care and health of the American people.

ObamaCare would be well on its way to adulthood, universal coverage for all. It would be fairest of all health systems.

But at 5, it came down with a mysterious ailment known in medical circles as “failure to thrive.” The majority of citizens disliked it. Its supporters and its siblings were having trouble finding doctors who would accept them as patients. Premiums and deductible and out-of-pocket costs were crushing middle class budgets. Costs were shifting from employers to workers. Nationals deficits and their step-child, higher taxes, were climbing to unprecedented heights, half of ObamaCare co-ops had left the market.

The health and longevity of Americans were lagging behind other nations, particularly among white middle-aged middle-class Americans: 38% of American adults were obese, the highest percentage in the developed world.

What to do? The baby’s parents and supporters say: give the baby more time to grow. Force-feed the baby with more taxes and more regulations. Control and modify its growth formula. Give the baby more time to grow into adulthood. Big Baby will get well. Things will be swell. Big Baby and Big Brother know best.

Above all, ignore the baby-haters , critics, who say the most hateful things (“ObamaCare at 5; Sick and Getting Worse, Orange County Register, November 14):

"As with every Big Government program, failure becomes the excuse to do more of the same, rather than to kill the contrivance and get government out of the equation. In the face of mounting deficits, escalating costs and failed bureaucracies, Big Government champions from Bismarck to Obama always insist failures happen because they just didn’t have enough time, enough money and enough control. The day nears when Obamacare’s failure will prompt demands for more time, more of your money and more control over your life.”

The Health Reform Maze

Buy the Book

Book Description: In this first book in a series of four, Richard L. Reece, MD. provides a unique view of the roll out, and run up, of the Affordable Care Act. Reece shows in this book the progress and facets of ObamaCare's marketers and messengers, as the day approached for the launch of health insurance exchanges - the single most public and problematic portion of the new law. This is a must read for anyone who wants to chronicle this attempt to organize more than one-sixth of the U.S. economy by adding layers of federal government control and regulations.

Reece has been writing about U.S. health care for more than 45 years. His knowledge and experience, added to his keen intellect and gift of subtle humor, make this book a valuable part of anyone's collection.